The reason that Oin has the hearing issue is because Guillermo del Toro is a native Spanish speaker, and he’s trying to be funny. The Spanish oyen means “they hear”, from the infinitive oir.

I bet you anything that Guillermo found Oin and oyen too alike to pass up making a multilingual pun with.

…all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarﬁn and his house.

Yes, Del Toro seems to have been a fan of playing on puns in the dwarves' designs...
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He mentioned the thorny helmet that Thorin wears being because he;s called Thorin and it sounds like thorn. It seems he's just thought of every single pun in each name and tried to attribute that into the look of the dwarf... unfortunately for some reason this also meant ignoring the actual descriptions in the book, but whatever.

Bifur has a black and white beard because Bi-fur sounds like it means 2 furs. It can also mean cloven, which explains his head injury and we've seen that Thorin holds an Oaken Shield in one of the diaries...

I'm sure some people think it's stupid but I think it's a cool little addition to the character. I, personally, feel the same way about Bifor's axe in the head. -Sir are you classified as human -Negative, I am a meat-popsicle

I'm sure some people think it's stupid but I think it's a cool little addition to the character. I, personally, feel the same way about Bifor's axe in the head.

Until you realize it's a pun for being bifurcated.

…all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarﬁn and his house.

Hearing issues are very believable problem for an elderly miner, the hearing horn looks nice, and the whole thing is a simple way of making him unique both visually and in behaviour. I say it's rather clever. So what if it's a wordplay? <3 Gandy, Raddy, Sharkey, Ally & Pally <3

"Of all faces those of our familiares are the ones both most difficult to play fantastic tricks with, and most difficult really to see with fresh attention. They have become like the things which once attracted us by their glitter, or their colour, or their shape, and we laid hands on them, and then locked them in our hoard, acquired them, and acquiring ceased to look at them. Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else [make something new], may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds. The gems all turn into flowers or flames, and you will be warned that all you had (or knew) was dangerous and potent, not really effectively chained, free and wild; no more yours than they were you." -On Fairy Stories

I think you're spot on about Ori having a monastic look (“Exaudi orationem meam”, and all) reflecting his name’s connection to Spanish orar, to pray. He’s the Company’s scribe, too, which is in keeping with a monachal avocation. There is a Twengwa letter named ore, too, which is normally one of the rhotics (the other being romen). I just hope he doesn’t go arrrr! like a pirate a lot.

I guess we should also count our blessings that Bombur doesn't sport a bomber jacket or like to play with explosives, and that Nori doesn’t look like he has seaweed in his hair from all the nori-wrapped sushi.

Hm, perhaps Dori will sleep a lot, from dormant, dormitory, and Spanish dormir. Or he will have a taste for fish, from Spanish dorado, the Spanish name for the fish we in English now call “mahi-mahi” (that is, Coryphaena hippurus), but which we once called “dolphinfish” back before it got remarketed with a nonmammalian name.

Then again, El Dorado as a fabled land flowing with gold is pretty much in keeping with Dwarven dreams, so that could work, too.

Hard not to think of all this as being amaizingly corny, though. Oh well. :)

…all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarﬁn and his house.

And boy, they have had to use so much imagination. With many of the Dwarves they have had no starting point at all for their personalities. So random mental connections brought by the sound of the names have been one source of getting started. As the results are this good, I'm not complaining. <3 Gandy, Raddy, Sharkey, Ally & Pally <3

…all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarﬁn and his house.

Pues, sí. No estoy dicidendo que todas las alusiones vengan del castellano. After all, Guillermo speaks English, too. Será una mezcla de ambas lenguas. The thing is there are nearly as many Spanish speakers in the world as English speakers, so it’s not like this is la mar de sutil, ¿sabes? :)

…all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarﬁn and his house.